Theatre Port

Dixie Carter & Hal Holbrook Appear in Be My Baby
By Ken Ludwig
Directed by John Rando

October 5 ~ 23, 2005

The Alley Theatre kicks off its 2005-2006 Hubbard Stage season with the world premiere of Ken Ludwigs new comedy Be My Baby. The production features Dixie Carter, who played Julia Sugarbaker on the long-running television show Designing Women, and Hal Holbrook, who starred in Broadways Mark Twain Tonight! and appeared as Deep Throat in the film All the Presidents Men. Be My Baby is the latest from the author of Lend Me A Tenor, Crazy for You and Leading Ladies, the world premiere production that ran at the Alley last fall. The production is directed by Tony Award-winning director and native Houstonian John Rando...

The veteran actors play two likeable characters who don't like each other very much, but are forced into a cross-Atlantic adventure to transport a newborn baby to her adoptive parents. When they find themselves stranded in San Francisco in charge of the tiny infants care, the two have to form a new partnership, complete with comedic clashes and startling new lessons about life and love.

Playwright Ken Ludwig is the author of several Broadway and London hits. His play Crazy for You won the Tony Award, Olivier Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and Helen Hayes Award as Best Musical of the Year and was broadcast nationwide in 1999 on PBS Great Performances. His work Lend Me a Tenor won two Tony Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and was nominated for England's prestigious Olivier Comedy of the Year Award. On Broadway, Ludwigs Moon Over Buffalo featured Carol Burnett, then Lynn Redgrave, and went on to the West End in London. His adaptation of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthurs Twentieth Century ran on Broadway in 2004. Ludwigs work has been translated into 16 languages and performed in over 30 countries around the world. His Off-Broadway hits include Sullivan and Gilbert, Postmortem and Divine Fire. For film, he has written All Shook Up (a film adaptation of Be My Baby) for Touchstone Pictures and Lend Me a Tenor for Columbia Pictures.

Director John Rando's Broadway directing credits include the hit musical Urinetown, for which he won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, Neil Simon's The Dinner Party (also at the Mark Taper Forum and the Kennedy Center), A Thousand Clowns, and Dance of the Vampires. Rando achieved prominence in New York directing several of David Ives' comedies, including Polish Joke, Mere Mortals, Ancient History/English Made Simple and Lives of the Saints. Additional New York credits include The Pajama Game, Do Re Mi and Strike Up the Band for City Center Encores!, When Ladies Battle, The Venetian Twins and Twelfth Night at the Pearl Theatre Company, Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight at the Promenade Theatre, and Fortune's Fools at the Cherry Lane Theatre.

Dixie Carter is appearing for the first time at the Alley. On July 31, she ended a two-month engagement at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C. as Mrs. Erlynne in Oscar Wildes Lady Windermeres Fan. She had starred previously there in Wildes A Woman of No Importance. New York credits include 11 seasons at The CafCarlyle. On Broadway, she has appeared in Thoroughly Modern Millie (at the Marquis Theatre), as Maria Callas in Master Class (the John Golden Theatre), Melba in Pal Joey (Circle in the Square) and in Sextet (the Bijou Theatre). Off-Broadway she has appeared in The Winters Tale at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Taken in Marriage, Fathers and Sons, Buried Inside Extra, Gogol and Jesse and the Bandit Queen at the Public Theatre, Carousel, The King and I, and The Merry Widow at Music Theatre of Lincoln Center. Her regional theatre credits include Paper Doll (Jacqueline Susanne) at Long Wharf Theatre; Names (Stella Adler), A Streetcar Named Desire (Blanche DuBois), The Apple Cart, Kiss Me Kate, A Little Night Music, Mame, Babes in Arms, Oklahoma, Brigadoon, The King and I, The New Moon, The Student Prince, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night. In addition to her most well-known television role, that of Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women, she has starred in seven other television series: Family Law, Family Man, Fired Up, Filthy Rich, On Our Own, Out of the Blue, and Diffrent Strokes. Carter travels as a public speaker and appears in concert across the country. She has received career awards from the Southeastern Theatre Conference, National Corporate Theatre Fund, and The Shakespeare Theatre Millennium Recognition Award, as well as a Theatre World Award for Jesse and the Bandit Queen, a Drama Desk nomination for Fathers and Sons and a Dramalogue Award for Names. The Dixie Carter Performing Arts will open in November 2005 in Huntington, Tennessee. Carter is a member of the Presidents Committee for Service and Civic Participation.

Hal Holbrook has been an actor for over six decades. New York theatre roles include Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Marco Millions, After the Fall, Glass Menagerie, I Never Sang For My Father, Man of LaMancha, The Country Girl, King Lear, and An American Daughter. He has toured the nation in Camelot and Death of a Salesman, and appeared in regional theatre productions of Henry IV, Pt. I; Merchant of Venice; King Lear; Uncle Vanya and Our Town. Three dozen film credits include Midway, Julia, All the Presidents Men, Wall Street, The Firm and Men of Honor. He has appeared in 50 television movies and two series, earning five Emmy awards and 12 Emmy nominations. His solo stage show Mark Twain Tonight! is now in its 51st year, having earned Holbrook the Tony Award, Drama Critics Circle Award and others. He has received the Edwin Booth Award (1996), the William Shakespeare Award (1998) and the National Humanities Medal (2003). He was inducted into the New York Theatre Hall of Fame in 2000. He holds honorary degrees from several colleges.

The cast of Be My Baby also features Alley Theatre regulars Elizabeth Bunch (Alleys The Crucible and Steel Magnolias) as Gloria and Ty Mayberry (Alleys Deathtrap and Spiders Web) as Christy. Alley Theatre Resident Company Actor James Black and Robin Moseley complete the cast in ensemble roles.

The production also benefits from a design team that includes set designer Alexander Dodge (Broadways Hedda Gabler), costume designer David Woolard (Broadways All Shook Up and Alleys The Underpants), lighting designer Donald Holder (Broadways revival of A Streetcar Named Desire) and sound designer John Gromada (Broadways revival of A Streetcar Named Desire and Alleys Hapgood).

Performance Schedule:
Preview: October 1~3
Opens: October 5th
Closes: October 23rd
Sunday~Thursday @ 7:30
Fridays & Saturdays @ 8pm
Matinees on Saturdays & Sundays @ 2:30pm

Location:
Alley Theatre
Hubbard Stage
615 Texas Ave

Box Office:
713/228-8421

*$19 Cheap Thrills Tickets are available for this production. Call or check the Alley Theatre's website for further details.

Visit Alley Theatre's Site!

Houston Theatre News and Events Brought to you by Houston's Theatreport!